SADTU in Gauteng condemns the use of its name as a scapegoat to justify racist conduct at Klipspruit West Secondary School

2 August 2017

SADTU in Gauteng condemns the use of its name as a scapegoat to justify racist conduct by a grouping called Patriots for Equality through its spokesperson Charis Pretorius. This unfortunate baseless pronouncement was made during the ENCA evening news bulletin on 01 August 2017. SADTU and ATU participated in the recruitment process of Klipspruit West Secondary school as observers in terms of the applicable Education Labour Relations Council collective agreement.

The latter bestows responsibilities upon the School Governing Body to administer the process and make recommendations to the Department of Education to effect the appointment as the employer. These responsibilities are drawn from the South African Schools Act. The SGB cannot claim not to have had the capacity to conduct this process after it had completed it. The so called 'SADTU influence" is used to cover up racism.

It is extremely shocking that this grouping believes that the so called 'proper role models' can only be drawn from the Coloured race. The school has a teacher component of 27 educators, 15 of whom are Coloured and 12 African and 4 non-teaching staff 3 of whom are Coloured and 2 African. In a total learner population of 751, 60% are Africans and 40% are Coloured. This grouping cannot claim marginalization as if the other racial groupings did not suffer the same from the oppressive defeated apartheid regime.

The temporary placement of a district official is only courtesy of the MEC to give them audience and has nothing to do with irregularities in the process. We call on Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) to facilitate the appointed principal's assumption of duty.

It also very disturbing that this grouping has confirmed its intentions to disrupt teaching and learning at more other schools in the surrounding areas. This has a potential to create racial tensions in schools. We urge all teachers, learners, parents and broader communities to reject this call which intends to plunge our schools into a crisis to serve the narrow racial interests of this grouping.